Pickup Advice

[zzzHillzzz]

Hi all I'm looking for some pickup advice as watching vids of bareknuckles I have my heart set on a pair for my guitar, just unsure which two to go for. I want a sound more geared towards hi gain metal with good low mid punch and hopefully decent cleans.
I play a stock fender mim telecaster and will be getting the peavey 6505 plus 1x12 combo within the next two months.
I know a tele isn't a stereotypically "metal" guitar but I really like the feel of it.

Any help will be much appreciated.

[Alex]

I'd say you'd get a good low mid punch from a Black Dog - it's a bit bigger and has more mids than a PAF, but still has decent cleans.
I also have a Holy Diver, that would also work, it is very full and since Teles are naturally tight sounding guitars you'de have a lot of punch there as well, but it is a higher output pickup.

Since I have almost the same amp (5150 Mk1) I can ensure you won't need any extra output from the pickup - the Black Dog does metal sounds without qualms.

[AndyR]

When you say "stock fender mim telecaster" - are you after tele pickups or sticking humbuckers in?

I'd assumed the former when I first read your post at lunchtime... and I was wondering Boss and Piledriver (but I've not experience, this is based on other's posts), but didn't have time to post...

But, reading Alex's post since then, I'm not so sure now...  :lol:

Welcome to the forum btw :D

[zzzHillzzz]

I'd be up for putting humbuckers in it but it's only routed for a single in the bridge and I think it's routed for a humbucker underneath the pick guard as per usual for mim teles. Just wasn't sure if a single in the bridge and humbucker in the neck would work or not. The guitar has an alder body so would I need darker sounding pickups to get it up to modern metal levels of gain?

Thanks for the welcome btw :)

[Dr. Stein]

Is a tele bridge pickup significantly different to a standard single coil - I don't know if you might be able to get a sinner with a tele baseplate? Or could you maybe fit a standard sinner in the route and just drill a couple of extra holes...

I have no idea - anyone?

[marauder]

Piledriver anyone?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCK7oHgmv7M

[zzzHillzzz]

I'd seen that video of the piledriver before and it's what got me interested in bareknuckles but would a piledriver be better than a high output humbucker in the neck or should I go for both a piledriver in the bridge and a humbucker in the neck?

[Roobubba]

Oh dear.

[Alex]

I thought it was something like the Jim Root Tele with two humbuckers, sorry.

[BigB]

Is a tele bridge pickup significantly different to a standard single coil

What's a "standard" single coil ? You mean a strat pup ?-)

But anyway...  A Tele bridge pup won't fit in a strat without re-routing, but I don't know how it would work the other way round. If yes, a Sinner might indeed be worth giving a try, but I think I'd rather first give the Piledriver a try as far as I'm concerned. Now I'm not really into metal myself...

@zzzHillzzz :

First, welcome onboard !-)

wrt/ the neck, I think you'd better first make sure your Tele is properly routed (FWIW, my own CiJ '62 Custom RI is not routed for a bucker neck). But well, if not you can always ask your favorite luthier to do the job, shouldn't be very expensive. wrt/ 'bucker vs SC neck, as I said, I'm not really into metal myself so I can't really provide any sound advice here (lame pun, sorry :mrgreen:), but there's also the 4-way switch option. This gives an additional position with neck+bridge series, which brings a standard Tele close to the 'bucker territory. I have this on mine, and even with very vintage pups (BGF50 here), it's really powerful and a great addition to the standard positions.

My 0.2 cents...

[zzzHillzzz]

Thanks for all the advice think when the time comes I'm going to go for a set of piledrivers :)

[AndyR]

I'd second what BigB says about putting a 4-way switch in at the same time if you're going for a tele bridge and neck pickup.

I've got it on all of my teles, I don't use it much (I'm not into metal territory that often either), but it's really good to have there and you've still got all the standard tele settings.

If you do go for a 4-way, make sure you mention it in the order for the pickups - BKP will put the extra ground wire onto the neck pickup casing that you'd need (actually, I order the 4-way from them at the same time, and a wiring diagram arrives in the box :D).

Oh dear.

:lol:

Something gone wrong there at your end, Roo? Spilt your tea on your keyboard or something?